Bury pushed under is top and bottom of it

Following a fortnight where Tarleton Firsts had beaten the top of the table and then lost to the bottom of the table they knew they had to come away with the points against Bury to maintain their drive for a top four finish in the league.

The pitch was declared fit and again this was one of the few matches to go ahead in the division, a testament to the work put into the ground over the last few months.

Bury were the visitors and from the kick off it looked like Tarleton were going to be all over them when following several phases of play and quick re-cycling of the ball saw the ball spun out to George Skofic on the wing who eluded the Bury defenders blocking his path to score a good opening try.

Bury put pressure on Tarleton for the next 15 minutes but the defence held firm and more good phases between the forwards and backs saw Tarleton make their way up the field and another try resulted for Archie Skofic after 24 minutes and Tarleton were 10 points to the good and didn’t look to be in trouble even though playing against a strong wind.

Most of the rest of the first half was played in the middle of the pitch as neither side could find gaps in the opposition defences to exploit and it was just before the whistle that Bury got back into the game with a push over try from a five metre scrum.

This was unconverted so at half time the score was 10-5 to Tarleton.

The second half saw Tarleton playing with the advantage of the wind and they started to gain good ground with a decent kicking game but Bury defended well and managed to clear the ball on three occasions in the first five minutes of the second half.

Tarleton were also giving away too many penalties and ceding possession to Bury when in good positions but still most of the rugby was being played in the Bury half.

Then everything changed and in an attempt to dive on a loose ball Archie Skofic was injured when his supporting leg was fallen on by a Bury forward and he was unable to be moved from the position of his injury.

The decision was taken to change pitches and all the advantage of the wind was lost and on the smaller pitch it suited Bury’s game plan more.

Tarleton found themselves on the back foot for the remainder of the match and Bury looked the more likely to score in the final minutes.

However, crucially Tarleton kept their discipline and didn’t give away any soft penalties and tackled like demons to keep Bury out.

A win is a win but the heavy pitches are definitely impeding Tarleton’s way of playing and is resulting in less open rugby which is their forte.

This result keeps them in fourth place in North Lancs 1.

The Seconds were away at Vale of Lune and the same applied to them with regard to playing their style of open rugby on a pitch that, on the photos, looks like a mud bath.

They lost a closely contested game when vale scored a try in the last minutes to take the match 5-3. This now puts the Seconds in a relegation battle that they should be able to claw their way out of.